Crown Prince Salman, deputy premier and minister of defense, yesterday distributed Prince Sultan International Prize for Water and commended the government’s efforts to ensure adequate supply of water for citizens.
Prince Khaled bin Sultan, deputy defense minister, said the prize was the brainchild of the late Prince Sultan who had a vision to confront the challenges facing water, one of the important factors of life.
The prize for creativity went to a team of researchers led by Dr. Ashok Gadgil from the University of California for developing an innovative and effective method of treating the arsenic contamination of groundwater using electrocoagulation. Surface water prize was received by a team of researchers led by Dr. Kevin Trenberth of National Center for Atmospheric Research, US, for their ground-breaking work that provides a powerful estimate of the effects of climate change on the global hydrological cycle.
Dr. Charles Franklin Harvey of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his team won the groundwater prize for developing a complete diagnostic and conceptual model for understanding and preventing the arsenic contamination of groundwater.
Alternative Water Resources Prize went to Dr. Mohamed Khayet Souhaimi from University Complutense of Madrid for his work in promoting membrane distillation for water recovery using alternative renewable energy sources.
Dr. Damia Barcelo of Catalan Institute for Water Research, Spain, received the water management and protection prize for developing new methods for future water risk assessment and management of emerging contaminants and the investigation of water quality in intensively used basins.